Richmond Hill, Ontario – July 8, 2009. — Canada’s Top Endangered Cultural Place is The David Dunlap Observatory & Park in Richmond Hill. This new title was given to the 189-acre site by Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF), as selected from 10 of the nation’s other significantly threatened cultural landmarks.

(Visit: http://www.heritagecanada.org/eng/news/new.html#July7_09)

“This national recognition acknowledges the Dunlap Observatory site’s importance on the Canadian landscape. It validates our position it must be protected from development, not only as a statement of this country’s values, but because of its contribution to the world’s evolution of science and astronomy in the 20^th century,” said Marianne Yake, President of the Richmond Hill Naturalists.

Heritage Canada Foundation, also known as Heritage Canada, is a registered charity and a trustee of the Crown. Through its membership, it represents almost 100,000 culturally concerned citizens and organizations working in heritage industries. Their mandate is to foster and encourage the understanding, protection and sustainable evolution of Canada’s Cultural Landscape, in particular the architectural heritage of that landscape.  HCF also has strong links to Parks Canada Agency and the Historic Sites and Monuments Board, both of which report to Jim Prentice, Federal Minister of the Environment.

In early May, a delegation of York Region residents travelled to Ottawa and met with Minister Prentice; Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Americas) Peter Kent; and Mr. Alan Latourelle, CEO of Parks Canada, regarding the plight of the Dunlap Observatory and Park.

Said Minister Kent: “The Foundation’s identification of the Dunlap Observatory and Parklands as top of the list of endangered national heritage sites is wonderful news and a wakeup call that should reverberate in the hallowed corridors of one of Canada’s best-endowed Universities, in the executive offices of one of Canada’s most respected development companies, and the council chambers of a wonderful community that professes great affection for historic places and the environment.”

He continued: “This is great news and will be noted by policy-makers of our federal government. I hope that it finally catches the attention of the Ontario government ministers responsible for Heritage and the Environment.”

This award is the pinnacle certifying the many steps local citizens have taken during a 20-month battle to preserve their 1935 landmark for all Canadians to enjoy. Led by the Richmond Hill Naturalists, local citizens and the community have made $250,000 in direct contributions and dedicated some $2.25 million in volunteer hours to underwrite sweeping protections for the Dunlap Observatory site.

“The Dunlap is a sacred place, it is one of the last undisturbed tracts of open green space in the Region. It contains the full imprint of mankind from the Ice Age to the Atomic Age. This property is of incalculable heritage value and should be kept intact – free from the fate of becoming just another patch of urban sprawl,” Ms. Yake said.

The Dunlap Observatory was selected by Heritage Canada Foundation not only because of development threats – the unnecessary removal of its contents by the University of Toronto, the number of insensitive physical changes inflicted on the Dunlap site by the new landowner, and the lack of provincial and municipal response to curb these unfortunate changes, were also contributing factors.

Minister Kent reflected, “I hope that the HCF’s proclamation will move the U of T to return priceless scientific fittings and instruments stripped from the Dunlap Observatory when it was sold.”

Last July, the Dunlap site was purchased by Corsica Development Inc., a joint venture company shared in part by Metrus Development Inc.  The U of T holds a $35 million, two year interest-free mortgage on its previous holding.  Following the sale, a treasure trove of scientific artifacts were removed from the Dunlap buildings by the U of T.  These buildings are now bare of their intrinsic heritage assets – astronomical instruments, documentation, books, photographic records, furniture, portraiture and machine shop equipment – a time capsule now lost.

“This is remarkable recognition for a remarkable place,” said Karen Cilevitz, Chair of the David Dunlap Observatory Defenders, another local community group also working to protect the Dunlap site.

“For 20 months we have been dedicated to securing the protection and conservation of this National site.  Our hope now, with the Dunlap Observatory and Park being credited as the most endangered heritage site in Canada, the Town of Richmond Hill and the province will work hand in glove to secure their landmark for Canadian history – this site must be protected and conserved as an integral whole with no development allowed”.

To assist in achieving these protections for the site, the Richmond Hill Naturalists took the property owner and the town of Richmond Hill to heritage court in January winning significant protections for the site.  The Board recommended to the town of Richmond Hill most of the land and 5 of 8 structures should be a protected as a Cultural Heritage Landscape.

(Visit: http://www.crb.gov.on.ca/english/Reports/2009_reports.html )

The Town can honour the Board’s recommendations, alter them, or dismiss them entirely.  The balance of the property will have significant restrictions placed on it to protect it from inappropriate development.

Ms. Yake said, “While we recognize our Town Councillors are under tremendous pressure in this case, we expect them to do the right thing – protect the entire site, period.  We have had to bear financial burdens beyond that which a non-profit group should have to shoulder to speak for a public place.”

“We believe we have reached a tipping point because of Heritage Canada Foundation’s decision of the Dunlap site as Canada’s most endangered heritage place.  This notable recognition instills in us the hope that the Town and the Province will now consider this treasured place as specific and as important as does a Federal agency and members of the Federal Government,” Ms. Cilevitz said.

For further information, please contact:

Marianne Yake
President
Richmond Hill Naturalists
(647) 241-7472
[email protected]

Karen Cilevitz
Chair
DDO Defenders
(416) 990-9964
[email protected]

David Belous
Special Assistant (Community Affairs) for
The Honourable Peter Kent, MP Thornhill,
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Americas)
(905) 886-9911
[email protected]

YORK REGION DELEGATION TO OTTAWA – May 7^th, 2009

(left to right) Joseph Shaykewich – Meteorologist; Chungsen Leung – Entrepreneur;

Valerie Burke – Markham Councillor; Marianne Yake – President, Richmond Hill Naturalists; Karen Cilevitz – Chair, DDO Defenders; Dr. Ian Shelton – Astronomer.

June 12, 2009, Richmond Hill, Ontario — Just days after receiving a decision of the Conservation Review Board of Ontario, which called upon the Town of Richmond Hill to consider preserving the majority of the 189-acre David Dunlap Observatory (DDO) & Park, a local member of parliament is commending the local community’s vision to protect and preserve the entire site.

Peter Kent, MP for Thornhill, and Minister of State of Foreign Affairs (Americas), said “The Dunlap Observatory and surrounding lands are priceless elements of Canadian history.  I’m working with a number of cabinet colleagues on ways we might support the efforts of a passionate group of York Region citizens to protect and preserve the Dunlap Observatory site.”

Minister Kent’s statement is the result of top-level meetings held in Ottawa in early May between concerned York Region residents and government officials. The group met to discuss the possible future of the David Dunlap Observatory and Park, including use of its substantive cultural heritage resources as an economic engine for York Region.

York Region residents knew delivery of the Conservation Review Board report – June 4, 2009 – would create an opportunity for additional provincial and new federal protections to be exercised on the site, alongside those of the Town of Richmond Hill.

“The CRB did just that,” said Marianne Yake, President of the Richmond Hill Naturalists and Ottawa meeting attendee. “It recommended “double-designation” by the Town and Province to protect the Dunlap’s built-heritage, cultural associations, its viewscapes, landscapes, and its natural environment resources. This report opened the door to federal considerations and makes possible a ‘hat-trick’ of heritage protections – local, provincial and federal.”

“As well as the several powerful heritage and environmental arguments for preservation of the Dunlap Observatory park lands, we have to recognize the significant potential groundwater damage to Richmond Hill, and for that matter, Thornhill, if development disrupts the already precarious balance of nature,” said Minister Kent.

Believing passionately the Dunlap site was of national significance, and with little local government response to their concerns, community members contacted the Federal government.   On May 7^th, 2009, the members of this York Region Delegation, drawn from a cross-section of the community, traveled to Ottawa.

Members of this delegation included:

• Ms. Karen Cilevitz – Chair, The David Dunlap Observatory Defenders,
• Ms. Marianne Yake – President, The Richmond Hill Naturalists,
• Ms. Valerie Burke – Markham Town Councillor,
• Dr. Ian K. Shelton – Astronomer, former Dunlap outreach specialist,
• Dr. C. Thomas Bolton – Professor Emeritus, former Dunlap Astronomer,
• Mr. Chungsen Leung – York Region business entrepreneur, and
• Mr. Joseph Shaykewich – Retired Environment Canada meteorologist.

Ms. Carolyn Quinn, of the Ottawa-based Heritage Canada Foundation, also attended the meeting, in support of the York Region residents plan to revitalize the Dunlap site.

The last remaining open green space in south Richmond Hill, the Dunlap site sits at the headwaters of the Don River, and is part of the Oak Ridges Moraine Aquifer Complex.  Evidence of pivotal historic events in Ontario are a part of the Dunlap lands – the 1795-6 blazing of Yonge Street from the forest, settlement by United Empire Loyalists, preparations for the War of 1812, the Rebellion of 1837, the establishment of the Presbyterian Church (1817), the country’s first astronomy campus and it’s largest telescope (1935) and the discovery and confirmation of black holes (1972).

An archaeological survey of the property also raises strong potential for aboriginal impact upon the Dunlap site, prior to its use by European settlers.

“It was an extraordinary meeting. Our presentation was very well received and we’re pleased with the immediate interest shown by our Federal representatives and officials. For the first time in over 19 months, we really feel the Dunlap site could be returned to public hands where it has always belonged,” said Karen Cilevitz, Chair of the DDO Defenders.

“The realization the Observatory site was an economic engine for York Region and Ontario was immediately apparent by all in attendance,” she said.

Astronomer Dr. Ian Shelton said, “This is where the first Canadian astronomers were trained, and many DDO staff members have played important roles in the history of modern astronomy. The discovery and confirmation of the first stellar mass black hole by Professor Tom Bolton is just one example. I had a real sense from our Ottawa meeting that the substantial list of Dunlap accomplishments won’t be just footnotes in an astronomy textbook.”

He continued, “I very much hope all of the heritage contents removed from the Observatory site are returned where they belong, and we can permanently establish the legacy of donor Jessie Donalda Dunlap and astronomer Dr. Clarence Chant. The interiors of these buildings were like walking back in time, filled with 70 years of instruments and literature that were used to keep pace with our rapidly evolving understanding about the true scale and complexity of the universe.  This was, and is, a very special place.”

Minister Kent agreed, and called for all scientific and historic artifacts to be restored to the Dunlap site. “The heritage value of the contents are significantly lessened by these removals, context is everything,” he said.

The Great Telescope, Observatory buildings and its site was donated in trust to the University of Toronto in 1935 by Jessie Donalda Dunlap, in memory of her husband David. Last July, the University sold the property to Corsica Development Inc., a corporation owned in part by Metrus Development Inc.

The University of Toronto continues to have a relationship with its former astronomical campus, as it holds a $35 million dollar mortgage on the property, which it gave interest free to Corsica, for two years. The University subsequently removed the Observatory’s contents, some of them given to a museum in Ottawa.

Nearly three-quarters of a century ago, the Dunlap Observatory site was an asset to a community of 900 farmers, which catapulted the little village of Richmond Hill to the absolute centre of the British Empire. Having one of the world’s largest telescope’s has brought millions of visitors into Richmond Hill and Markham Township, and this injection of economic stability was a financial engine in the local economy during the Depression of the 1930s.

Said Ms. Cilevitz: “The local communities have always known and appreciated the cultural heritage worth of the Dunlap Observatory and Park.  We now feel more confident it will indeed receive the protection and recognition it so richly deserves – that of a National site of great scientific, ecological, and economic significance.”

For further information, contact:

Karen Cilevitz

DDO Defenders
(416) 990-6694
[email protected]

Marianne Yake
RHNaturalists
(905) 883-3047
[email protected]

Dr. Ian Shelton
Astronomer
(905) 762-0072
[email protected] (905) 886-9911

David Belous
Special Assistant (Community Affairs)
Hon. Peter Kent, MP Thornhill
[email protected]

The Richmond Hill Naturalists officially announces the formation of a new special interest section of the club — an astronomy group, to be known as the AstroNats.

“We are thrilled to have the AstroNats join our club,” said Richmond Hill Naturalists’ President Marianne Yake. “With the AstroNats we will be able to extend our enjoyment and protection of nature to the sky as well as to Earth.”

This new amateur astronomy group will be chaired by Ms. Heide DeBond, one of the current operators of the 74 inch telescope at the David Dunlap Observatory (DDO).

The core of the amateur astronomy section of the club is drawn from the DDO Defenders group which together with the Richmond Hill Naturalists has undertaken to preserve and protect the entire DDO site at 123 Hillsview Drive, Richmond Hill. The Astronats will service southern York Region and the Greater Toronto Area.

With the formation of the AstroNats, the Richmond Hill Naturalists and the David Dunlap Observatory astronomers have come full circle: In 1955 Helen Sawyer Hogg and Ruth Northcott, both resident astronomers at the Observatory, helped found the fledgling nature group called the Naturalists and later called the Richmond Hill Naturalists. From astronomers forming a nature group, we now have that same nature group forming an astronomy group.

The Richmond Hill Naturalists is dedicated to enjoying, protecting and promoting the environment and natural history. The club offers year-round activities and monthly speakers from September to April covering a wide range of topics. Included under the umbrella of the club are dedicated groups for bird watching, botany, the environment, and now astronomy.

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For further information on the Richmond Hill Naturalists please contact:

Marianne Yake
President

Richmond Hill Naturalists
[email protected]

Phone: 905-883-3047

https://www.rhnaturalists.ca/

MEDIA RELEASE

Naturalists seek more protection for the
Heritage Designation of Dunlap Park & Observatory

November 22, 2007 — The Richmond Hill Naturalists today filed a Notice of Objection to the proposed Heritage Designation for the David Dunlap Observatory. On October 23, the Town of Richmond Hill designated the Observatory buildings worthy of protection under the Ontario Heritage Act. The Naturalists made the formal objection because the Town of Richmond Hill did not include heritage protection for the contents of the Observatory or the land on which it stands.

“We stepped forward even though we were put in a very difficult position,” said Marianne Yake, President of Richmond Hill Naturalists. “On one hand we applaud the actions the Town took in trying to preserve the buildings, but believe Council should use the full extent of its authority in seeking to protect this historical, cultural and scientific asset for our community”, she stated.

The Notice of Objection states further protection is required for the scientific, historic and educational contents of the Observatory buildings, including telescopes, computerized support equipment, maintenance and repair shops, books, periodicals, observation logs and slide reference libraries. In addition, the Richmond Hill Naturalists call for protection of the heritage landscape of the site. Yake stated that “In addition to the clear environmental benefits of forest cover and green space, full protection of the David Dunlap Observatory landscape is needed.”

“The unique historic and cultural value of the David Dunlap Observatory can only be maintained if the natural landscape remains unaltered and if the resident wildlife refuge, an intended consequence of the Observatory’s long history, is also protected”, she added.

“Every clear night, the David Dunlap Observatory has made continuous contributions to astronomy since 1935 and that work continues to this day. The natural setting surrounding the Observatory has flourished with formal tree plantings that support the steady operation of the telescope. The buildings and the land are integral. You can’t protect one, without the other. They’re locked together by the intent of the original donor, Jessie Donalda Dunlap.”

This Fall, the University announced its intention to sell the Dunlap property and buildings, and by mid-November it put the property out for formal bids.

“Almost every school age child living in the GTA over the years has been through these buildings getting an introduction to astronomy and real science,” said Yake. “If that’s not heritage, I don’t know what is.”

The Conservation Review Board who administers the Ontario Heritage Act is expected to hear the matter of designation for the David Dunlap Observatory.

END

Contact Info:

Marianne Yake
President, Richmond Hill Naturalists
Phone: (905) 883-3047
Email: [email protected]

https://www.rhnaturalists.ca